Don't Forget Church Records

By TCGS Member, Connie Estep

Church records may be able to fill in our research blanks, especially since governments did not always require recordings of births, marriages, and deaths. Richard Kyle, Librarian and Resource Specialist for the Yakima Valley Genealogical Library, discussed on-line access to church records.

Church records vary by denomination and may include births, marriages, deaths, christenings, baptisms, and confirmations.  Sometimes they will have newsletters that could provide a more personal glimpse. Kyle recommended FamilySearch Wiki as a starting place. For U.S. church records go to familysearch.org/wiki/en/United_States_Church_Records. The Wiki is searchable by country and denominations. (In case you haven’t used it much, the Wiki has a treasure trove of genealogy help, from basic concepts to very specific details. It is well worth the time to get to know this site.) For many years the Catholic Church allowed the LDS Church access for copying records. They no longer allow this. Google is also a good place to search for church records.

Kyle also recommended cyndislist.com that many of us are familiar with, plus two I never heard. Gengophers.com he said has a faster interface than FamilySearch. The other one, MooseRoots.com, he also said was very fast. These are both free sites; MooseRoots requires registration and log-in. Both sites offer a paid subscription to avoid pop-up surveys.

Kyle also discussed searching U.S. Census records not yet indexed or for family members not showing up in indexes. Since the censuses are handwritten lists they can be hard to decipher. These lists were made by the census takers (enumerators); each enumerator had a district. To search the handwritten lists you need to know not only the city the person lived in but also the address or the general neighborhood to find the right enumeration district.

Both the National Archives federal census website (archives.gov/research/census) and the FamilySearch Wiki provide specific information (finding aids) to help your census research. I played around a bit with both archives.gov and the FS Wiki and found the Wiki was recently upgraded. If you have problems with the Wiki, try the federal site.

To record information from the hand written lists, Kyle recommended downloading census research forms and hand writing the information to make it easier to refer to. With each census the list of questions was usually changed somewhat.

Kyle also discussed resources of the Yakima Valley Genealogical Library (available for our free use).  Go to yvgs.net for more details. Fifty-one people attended this meeting.

It's A Wrap - Archived Document Contest Winners

This last year we have been entertained and amazed with various entries to the Archived Document Contest. The contest began 1 April 2015 and ended 31 March 2016. The goal of the contest was to prove that not all genealogical records are available online while simultaneously celebrating computerized genealogy.

The contest was open to the public. All that was needed to enter the Archived Document Contest was a scanned image of a document that was not found online. Individuals wanting to enter the contest uploaded these scanned images to the TriCity Genealogical Society Facebook page with an explanation of where the document was found and how it tied into the researcher’s family history.

Each month entries were bundled together and sent to a panel of judges. The judges reviewed each entry and selected one entry as that month’s winning entry. Prizes typically encouraged computerized genealogy and included digitized subscriptions to magazines like Internet Genealogy and Your Genealogy. Other prizes were subscriptions to online databases like Mocavo, Newspapers.com, and Fold3.

True celebration, however, came in the excitement of what was discovered by the documents that were found in offline repositories. As we read the entries we cheered for many tender facts that would not have been discovered by simple queries entered into large databases.

There were a total of 33 entries submitted. The majority of these documents came from family archives, but not necessarily the archives of the home. Many important documents came from collaboration efforts and were provided by relatives who were excited to share their treasures. Here is the breakdown of where documents were found that were submitted to the contest.

·        Family Archives - 13

·        Family History Library and Family History Centers – 9

·        Government records (city, county, and state) – 4

·        National and State Archives – 4

·        Local non-government agencies (funeral homes, museums) – 3

It is important to note the variety of repositories that held information shared in this contest. The Archived Document Contest showed us that when researching family history all of these repositories should be explored.  

All winning entries were automatically entered into a separate contest to determine the winner and runner-up for the full year. The first place prize was a one year subscription to Ancestry.com. A runner- up prize was a one year subscription to Find My Past.

The judging panel had a very difficult job in selecting the two winning entries from a collection of twelve entries that were already deemed superior. They did select Margie Stein Beldin’s entry submitted in April 2015 and Loren Schmid’s entry submitted in February 2016.

Margie Stein Beldin -
Archived Document Contest Winner

You can read Margie’s entry by going to http://tinyurl.com/MSBIreland or you can read the TCGS blog article about her entry at http://tcgs1961.blogspot.com/2015/05/archived-document-contest-april-winner.html. She shared with us her struggle of reading old handwriting found on a preprinted form. In her search she collaborated with other researchers, asked assistance from an expert genealogist, kept her research current by reading various publications, and emailed the National Archives. She never gave up and she was rewarded with her 2^nd great grandfather’s Declaration of Intent. She is also awarded a one year subscription to Ancestry.com. The judges felt that Margie had used many traditional research methods in order to fulfill her quest.

Loren Schmid -
Archived Document
Contest Runner-Up

Loren Schmid, on the other hand, won the runner-up prize for using more modern techniques. In his February 2016 entry he shared how DNA research opened up many doors. You can read his entry by going to blog article about her entry at http://tinyurl.com/zwo6l4k. There is a TCGS blog article about Loren’s entry at http://tcgs1961.blogspot.com/2016/03/susan-davis-faulkner-to-purchase.html. Loren shared with us the success that can be found by using DNA to find researchers to collaborate with. He also gave us wonderful examples of how collaboration can be enjoyed and reciprocated.   

Thank you to everyone that participated in this contest. Those that submitted entries helped us to learn from their success stories. A huge Thank You goes to our panel of judges. Their input was essential to the success of this contest. The Judges were Bill Floberg (Chairman), Mary Kay Walker, and Walt Wood.

Archived Document Contest April Winner Announced

The TriCity Genealogical Society’s Archived Document Contest began April 1. There were a total of six entries during the month. Facebook readers stood by with anticipation as entries were made from individuals who had found wonderful family gems off line. Four of the entries posted during the month were received from family members, one from a microfilm at the Family History Library, and another one by making a telephone call to the National Archives Branch in Boston.

Flavor of life unfolded before our eyes as we learned that succulent details of ancestors’ lives were available, but not in huge databases. We got to enjoy pages from a personal journal, a holiday card with an important announcement, and an article written by an 11 year old boy that was published in a national magazine. The information shared in these artifacts helped the researchers enjoy a more personal understanding of their ancestor.

We also got to enjoy the more standardized genealogical finds like naturalization declarations, citizenship applications, and newspaper clippings. The ones shared during the contest though were not digitized. Many times the researcher had to work a little harder to obtain the information they were seeking, but the rewards were well worth the exploration.

If the results from this month’s contest were going to recommend the repository with the best results, family members would win. This should encourage all of us to seek information from our own family member repositories. This contest however is for the best submitted document that was obtained in any fashion other than the Internet.

Our winner for the month of April is Margie Stein Beldin. The final step in Margie’s long adventure in obtaining the Naturalization Declaration of her 2^nd Great Grandfather was a phone call to the National Archives Branch in Boston. Margie wins a one year Premium Membership to Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems. You can get more information about this prize by going to www.GenealogyGems.com

Below is what Margie submitted about her amazing search for information and how she was able to obtain results.

” More than 15 years ago, I found the naturalization papers for my Irish gr gr grandfather, Frances McCue. However, it was impossible to decipher the name of the county he came from. I knew little about Irish research except that you had to know at least the county to begin researching in Ireland.

In 2001, I attended my first national conference, NGS-Portland. Wanting to know more about Irish research, I attended several presentations by Irish genealogists. Kyle Betit was one of them. I explained to him my dilemma and he offered to look at the naturalization document to see if he could decipher the place.

Before I turned to Kyle, however, I decided to try again on my own. The naturalization papers did show that Francis had filed his Declaration of Intent 24 June 1851. In 2002, I went to Boston for the first time and met a cousin, Patricia McHugh, who wanted to help me search for our Irish ancestor. She and I drove to Waltham to NARA-Boston to look through the books ourselves. However, we met with disappointment when we found a gap in the documents surrounding the time Francis would have filed his declaration. We left frustrated.

I then turned to Kyle who tried to read the county but could not decipher it. Pat even took a copy of the naturalization paper to Ireland on vacation. People there said the place had to be Lahinch. The problem was, Lahinch is not a county but a town. I didn’t buy that explanation at all.

In 2012, I was reading the Berkshire Genealogist, a publication of the Berkshire Family History Association. Their local librarian wrote about locating naturalization records. This led me to try once again to find the declaration of intent. I sent an email to NARA-Boston with a copy of what I did have and an explanation about not finding the declaration back in 2002.

Within days of my email I received the following email: “The declaration of intent for Francis McHugh has been located. We can provide a copy of the record for a fee of $7.50 per record...” Needless to say, I was on the phone in minutes reading them my credit card number. Within a few days, I received the declaration in the mail and there, in bold, legible handwriting, it said “County Leitrim, Ireland”. It was time to do the genealogy Happy Dance!

It only took 12 years+ and I still do not know the exact birth place of Francis McCue or if any of his family survived the famine besides him, but I’m one step closer. And, lucky for me, County Leitrim is one of the smaller counties.”